Bachmann made the announcement at a press conference Wednesday, saying, “Last night, the people of Iowa spoke, with a very clear voice, so I have decided to stand aside.”

Mitt Romney got top bragging rights in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, edging out opponent Rick Santorum by fewer than 10 votes. Libertarian-leaning Ron Paul secured third place with around 21 percent of the votes, while the rest of the candidates — Newt Gingrich at 13 percent, Rick Perry at 10 percent, and Bachmann at 5 percent — fell much further behind.

Despite his fifth-place finish, Perry seems set to stay in the race, writing on his official Twitter account: “The next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State. … Here we come South Carolina!!!” The tweet included a photo of Perry in jogging gear, giving a thumbs-up.

Photo: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. (Wikimedia Commons/Fibonacci Blue)

From CNN:

Ron Paul finished a close third, according to the state GOP. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who placed fifth, said late Tuesday that he would return to his home state to consider whether his campaign would continue.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, had 30,015 votes. Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and an upstart challenger who just weeks ago polled in the single digits, had 30,007, the state GOP said.

Each had roughly 25% of the vote in Iowa, the first state to vote in the 2012 presidential caucus and primary season. Paul, a U.S. representative from Texas, had 21%. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was at 13%. Perry was at 10%, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota had 5%, and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman had 1%.

State GOP officials said certified results will be released in two weeks.

Because the race was initially too close to call, many candidates spoke to their supporters before the final tally was released.

“Game on,” said Santorum, to a crowd gathered in Johnston, Iowa. “What wins in America are bold ideas, sharp contrasts and a plan that includes everyone. A plan that says we will work together to get America to work.”

Even Romney praised Santorum’s efforts when speaking at his celebration party. “This has been a great victory for him and for his effort,” Romney said of Santorum. “He’s worked very hard in Iowa. We also feel it’s been a great victory for us here.”

The focus of the race will now shift to New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Tues., Jan. 10.

Photo: 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

On Thursday morning, Gingrich penned NOM’s “Marriage Pledge,” promising to support a federal marriage amendment, which would prohibit gay and lesbian American couples from marrying; appoint an attorney general and Supreme Court justices who are outwardly opposed to same-sex marriage; appoint a commission that investigates NOM’s opponents; and attempt to nullify same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia.

Over the summer, Romney and fellow candidates Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry signed the pledge. Ron Paul and Huntsman and declined, but NOM President Brian Brown is only going after Paul.

Earlier this week, Gingrich sent a statement of support for the perhaps even more controversial “Marriage Vow” created by Iowa’s Family Leader, an affiliate of Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. He did not sign the 14-point pledge, which at one point including the statement:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

This summer, Bachmann and Santorum signed the Family Leader’s vow while it still included this point about slavery; Perry signed it after the passage was removed due to public outrage.

Though Gingrich did not put his signature to this particular pledge, he did promise that, as president:

I will vigorously enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted under my leadership as Speaker of the House, and ensure compliance with its provisions, especially in the military. I will also aggressively defend the constitutionality of DOMA in federal and state courts. I will support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification. I will also oppose any judicial, bureaucratic, or legislative effort to define marriage in any manner other than as between one man and one woman. I will support all efforts to reform promptly any uneconomic or anti-marriage aspects of welfare and tax policy. I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.

Watch Ron Paul explain why he does not support a Federal Marriage Amendment at the Family Leader’s Thanksgiving Forum:

The Human Rights Campaign has pointed out the irony of the National Organization for Marriage praising Gingrich as a “marriage champion,” considering the former speaker of the House has been married three times, and it is public knowledge that he has cheated on previous spouses.

Photo: Newt Gingrich (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

In September, the last time PPP polled in Colorado, Perry led Romney 31-18. A Bloomberg poll released at about the same time also had Perry leading in Colorado. Gingrich was considered a fringe candidate at that time.

The polling firm noted that Gingrich seems to have picked up virtually all of Herman Cain’s supporters.

“There’s no one left for conservatives to go to but Gingrich, and he’s proving stronger so far than any of the previous flavors of the month,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “It looks like it’s down to him and Romney.”

Of course, 66 percent of the likely Republican voters surveyed said their choice was not yet locked in stone. Interestingly, though, Gingrich was also named by more people as their second choice than any other candidate, with 18 percent picking him second. Overall, 55 percent of Colorado Republicans picked him first or second.

Ron Paul broke from the pack last week in New Hampshire and said Americans–and especially people in government–need to listen to occupiers and ask themselves the fundamental question of how America got into the position where so many feel so disenfranchised.

From NationofChange:

PAUL: In many ways, it’s a very healthy movement. I’m not one to say, “why don’t you get a bath and go get a job and quit crybabying.” I don’t like that at all. I think that’s a misunderstanding of where the unemployment comes from. The unemployment comes from policy, government policy…

‘

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (Photo: myfloridalegal.com)

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is slated to co-host a Republican presidential candidate forum on Fox News’ Huckabee this Saturday, exactly one month before the Iowa caucuses. Bondi will interview candidates alongside Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Candidates Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have all been confirmed for the event. No word on whether or not one-time frontrunner Herman Cain, who is currently being dogged by accusations of a longtime affair with a Georgia woman, will also appear. According to The New York Times, the network is also awaiting responses from Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman.

“This forum is an excellent opportunity to engage each of the candidates in a candid conversation about issues that are important to voters in our state and across the nation,” Bondi said in a press release sent out by the Republican Party of Florida. “This will be a historic election, and I am excited to play a part in helping voters gain a better understanding of candidates’ beliefs on fundamental issues such as constitutionalism and the role of government.”

Bondi appeared alongside many of the GOP presidential contenders in August, when she spoke at CPAC FL. During the event, Bondi sat on a panel that discussed  strategies to end “unconstitutional ObamaCare.”

The forum will take place at 8 p.m. Sat., Dec. 3.

Perry has spent $44,693 at KCCI, the local CBS affiliate, for ads running from Nov. 15 to Nov. 21. Since he began running ads in late October he’s spent $165,400 at KCCI and WHO, the local NBC affiliate.

And Make Us Great Again, a pro-Perry Super PAC, spent $10,455 at KCCI for ads running from Nov. 15 to Nov. 23. The group has spent $58,581 at KCCI and WHO since it began running ads in early November.

The combined total for Perry’s campaign and Make Us Great Again puts pro-Perry spending past that of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). Paul had been leading all candidates in spending on KCCI and WHO, but has no ads scheduled to run this week.

Paul has spent $190,313 at the two stations thus far; U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) hasn’t purchased ads at the stations since mid-August; and other candidates have yet to delve into the TV ad battle at the networks. Although it appears Herman Cain’s campaign is preparing to run ads at KCCI.

Crossroads GPS, which has so far spent $186,556 at KCCI and WHO on ads attacking U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Des Moines), has also stopped running ads.

Several GOP presidential candidates have called for eliminating the department, including U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Others have called for at least weakening it.

Tom Harkin

“How much it’s involved and how it’s involved is open for debate obviously, that’s open for discussion,” Harkin said of the department. “But to say that the federal government has no role in elementary, secondary education, or any education is just nonsense. We have a role, we have a very important role to play.”

Harkin said since the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 there’s been an expression of the federal government having a role in education of the territories, and even suggested the preamble of the U.S. Constitution calls for the federal government being involved in education.

“I submit to you that you can’t promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty without education,” Harkin said.

He also said the United States is “still one nation,” and every state and district has an interest in making sure children don’t fall through the cracks.

“A child who’s ill-educated in one state may not just be a burden in that state, that child can move to Iowa or Nebraska or Minnesota, you get my point,” Harkin said. “So we have a national interest in this from that standpoint.”

But Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, was quick to acknowledge there is a division in Congress and among the American people about the role of the federal government in education.

He said his committee has had that debate over the last year as they’ve worked on the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act of 2011, which was just approved out of committee on a bipartisan vote.

“That’s fine, but that doesn’t mean they’re irrevocable differences,” Harkin said. “It just means we have to get together and try to find a meeting ground, a common ground on which we can move forward, and I believe we’ve done that in this bill.”

That bill largely does away with No Child Left Behind, Harkin said, a controversial act passed in 2001. Harkin made the comments during a tour of the Des Moines Public Schools’ Downtown School on Friday morning.

Likely Republican caucusgoers sent a strong message to GOP presidential candidates in an Iowa AARP survey released Thursday, showing they’re strongly opposed to cuts to Social Security and Medicare and would much rather reduce military spending to address the federal deficit.

That message could be made stronger by the fact that more than 20 percent of those surveyed are still unsure who they’ll support in the Jan. 3 presidential contest, the survey found.

The survey of 400 likely Republican caucusgoers by GS Strategy Group shows 64.5 percent are opposed to Social Security cuts, and 67.3 percent to Medicare cuts. Another 86 percent of those surveyed said Social Security benefits are important to their monthly income, and 87 percent said Medicare is essential to seniors’ health care security.

Those surveyed would much prefer withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan to cutting Medicare (67.3 percent to 9.5 percent) or Social Security (65 percent to 8.8 percent).

Of those surveyed, 76.8 percent identified themselves as conservative and 50.5 percent as very conservative.

“Opposition to these benefit cuts among Republicans across the ideological spectrum confirms what AARP has been hearing from Iowans throughout our campaign to protect Social Security and Medicare:  Whether Republican, Democrat, Independent or Tea Party supporter, voters overwhelmingly oppose cuts to these programs,” said AARP Iowa State President Tony Vola.

Businessman Herman Cain led all GOP presidential candidates in the survey, with support at 25 percent. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 21.5 percent support, and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had 8.3 percent.

But more than 22.8 percent of those surveyed were still undecided, suggesting the race for the Republican nomination is still wide open, at least in the Hawkeye State.

The margin of error for the survey, conducted Oct. 17 and 18, is 4.9 percent.

Paul’s speech in St. Cloud touched on issues like domestic economic policy, the drug war and foreign interventions.

“The country and the world is in a mess today, and I’m quite convinced that we know exactly how we get here and exactly what to do,” Paul told the crowd, “and one thing’s for sure is we don’t need more government.”

Paul blamed the Federal Reserve for helping to bring about the speculative bubbles that sunk the nation’s economy.

“It’s the Federal Reserve that by interfering in the monetary system, monkeying around with interest rates, they create the bubbles,” Paul said. “For a while they can create one bubble and patch it up again, but eventually the big bubble bursts.”

He also condemned government bailouts of big banks and companies.

“They said if we don’t bail out the system there would be a depression,” Paul said. “Guess where the depression would have been? It would have been on those who were receiving our money. Instead the depression was dealt to the people, the middle class, they lost their jobs and they lost their houses and we the taxpayer absorbed the debt.”

Paul also voiced support for abolishing the Department of Education and the federal income tax, condemned the drug war as a tragedy and worried about creation of a worldwide monetary currency.

He told supporters that the country is increasingly in agreement with their libertarian economic views.

“We’re witnessing the end of an economic era,” Paul said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for those of us who believe in liberty to get this message out.”

Paul’s foreign policy stances have drawn jeers from some Republican crowds at debates, but he continues to advocate for neutrality and condemn the United States’ assassination of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, saying that ”what we must worry about is the rule of law because the rule of law protects us.”

Organizers put the turnout for the Republican candidate at about 2,500. Paul has trailed in most polls, but has captured a number of high-profile straw poll victories.

“You can not stop an idea whose time has come and the idea of liberty’s time has returned,” Paul said of his supporters. “We don’t have to understand each little issue, all we have to do is legalize freedom.”